• Українська
  • Русский
  • English
Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

Battle Of Syni Vody:Beginning of the End for the Golden Horde?

1 December, 1998 - 00:00

By Volodymyr PANCHENKO


Eighteen years before the Battle of Kulikovo, troops led by Algidras,
Grand Duke of Lithuania, defeated three Golden Horde khans at Syni Vody.
Modern historians believe that his victory boded very unpleasant consequences
for the Horde, and the place where Algidras's troops levied their devastating
blow on the Tatars in the fall of 1362 was most likely on the banks of
the river Syniukha [most likely the vernacular for Syni Vody, Blue Waters
- Ed.] in the vicinity of Torhovytsia, a village in what is currently
Kirovohrad oblast.

The Battle of Syni Vody is first mentioned in written sources dating
from the 14th-16th cc. In particular, the Golden Horde's shattering defeat
is referred to in The Chronicles of Poland, Lithuania, Zhmud, and All
Russia by Macej Strijkowski, first published in 1582. In 1430-40, the
Battle of Syni Vody proved a subject surfacing even in political disputes
between the Polish Kingdom and Lithuanian Grand Duchy as each sought historical
causes justifying their claims to the lands of Podillia.

Yevhen Malaniuk, the ОmigrО poet born in Novoarkhanhelsk, by the river
Syniukha had no doubt about the "Mongol-Tatars in our land" having been
liquidated by "Grand Duke Algidras of Lithuania who defeated the khans'
forces by the river of his childhood." Modern historians are more cautious
in their estimates: they believe that asserting the place of that battle
would be premature. There are other more or less convincing arguments from,
among others, Nikolai Karamzin, Volodymyr Antonovych, and Mykhailo Hrushevsky.

There is one point on which these researchers seem to agree: the Battle
of Syni Vody was part of large scale campaign waged against the Golden
Horde in 1362, aimed at joining Kyiv and the adjoining territories to the
Grand Lithuanian Duchy. Feliks Shbuldo, a Kyiv historian "restored" those
events, claiming that "Lithuanian-Rus' forces" made two large raids on
the Golden Horde; one taking them as far as the Don estuary on the Sea
of Azov, and the other reaching that of the Dnipro and Southern Buh of
which the Syniukha River [Syni Vody] was a tributary. Algirdas's military
success was facilitated by strife within the Golden Horde.

It is quite possible that the key to many secrets of Syni Vody lies
hidden in Torhovytsia, a village located on a steep bank of the Syniukha,
over the arc formed by the river. In his chronicle Strijkowsky refers to
Torhovytsia among the first towns liberated by Algidras. It is not surprising
that the attention of those studying the Syni Vody problem has been drawn
to this bewitching spot in the Ukrainian steppes. There is a regional research
center organized at Kirovohrad's Vynnychenko Pedagogical University, specializing
in the history of Central Ukraine (headed by Oleksiy Boichenko, Candidate
of History). Last year it organized a conference in Kirovohrad, dedicated
to the 635th anniversary of the Battle of Syni Vody. Archaeological expeditions
have been dispatched to Torhovytsia for several years...

The history of this settlement has many secrets awaiting discovery.
It is possible that in the fourteenth century it was a populated area under
the Golden Horde, and some sources also refer to it as Syni Vody, using
the same name as the river by which this town was located. Shabuldo thinks
it possible that Syni Vody (Torhovytsia) could be identified with Yabu-Horod
located somewhere in the Southern Buh basin, but far enough from the Black
Sea. He considers this Yabu-Horod to have been the residence of the khan's
palatine governing Golden Horde conquests west of the Dnipro (and the term
yabhu denoted those palatines' title as blood relations of the rulers
of all those steppe empires).

So what do the archaeological finds show? Is there material evidence
pointing to the Battle of Syni Vody? The expedition that worked under Kirovohrad
scholars Ninel Bokiy, Iryna Kozyr, and Oleksandr Demeshko discovered a
burial mound near Torhovytsia with 21 burial sites. The mound was located
by the river, which almost never happens. And almost no items of daily
use or weapons. There were certain indications that that the mound could
be that made for slaves, many of whom were seen in the streets of the fourteenth
century city that was Torhovytsia's predecessor. Golden Horde warriors
would herd their captives there. Who knows, maybe Yabu-Horod was a steppe
version of [the Crimea's] Caffa. The most precious discovery was two silver
and ten copper coins on which experts will have to work. They might turn
out to have been minted under Khan Navruz.

Underground passages are discovered at Torhovytsia, sometimes causing
village homes to cave in. Who dug them up and for what purpose? Maybe for
all those slaves? And why is the land at Torhovytsia so rich in antique
coins, now and then found by local residents in the least likely places?
Say, back in 1980 a flood ruined the bank adjoining today's bridge spanning
today's Syniukha, revealing masonry and coins scattered about, Perhaps
Torhovytsia is a toponym chosen for a special purpose: it literally means
"merchant routes crossing": water routes, the "fortified" character of
the terrain, and geographical location making this place a convenient spot
for setting up a huge fair.

Anthropologists will soon start studying the skeletons and sculls unearthed
by the archaeologists. The coins may help clarify the chronology of events
long since past. There were new expeditions. Probably somewhere in Turkey
and Lithuania someone will discover written sources that will help uncover
the secrets of the Battle of Syni Vody back in the fall of 1362, mirroring
the victory of the Battle of Kulikovo.

 

Rubric: